The Newspaper
by Soliloqueen
Summary: It's Valentine's Day and Kate's stuck in the precinct when all she wants to do is spend the day with Castle.


It was Valentine's Day and Kate was working. This never used to bother her, working on days like Christmas and Easter. She never really had anyone to spend it with. She would always jump at the opportunity to be at the precinct, regardless of the crazy murders the holidays were known for. But lately, things had changed. She had found someone who she could spend the holidays with. Someone she_ wanted_ to spend the holiday with. Of course that had to be the one holiday when she was forced to work. Gates had looked at her track record of things like these and made a presumption that she would come in to work again this year.

_She couldn't have known. If she'd known that Kate was dating Castle, she would even _have_ a job to be stuck oat on Valentine's Day. _

Kate shuddered at the thought and returned to her files. She'd left the loft that morning promising Rick she would come round for lunch and clock off on time so she could have dinner at the loft. Rick was staying at home to prepare lunch and do some writing under the excuse, _If I come to the precinct, I might just be driven to kiss you in front of everybody._ She'd laughed and he'd replied _what? Love is in the air!_ That was the memory that helped her through the day.

"Morning, Beckett." Esposito called across the bull pen. He had offered to take Ryan's shift so he could spend the day with Jenny. No matter what threats were issued against him by a certain medical examiner.

"Espo." She grumped back at him.

"What's got you in such a foul mood?" He laughed. He was baffled by her attitude as usually she was in a great mood on these days, the days she could come in to the precinct without actually being on duty and it being considered healthy.

"Don't really want to be here." She said.

"Oh! You got a big date planned!" He shouted. **Now** he understood.

She groaned and escaped to the break room. Now that he'd heard, she wouldn't hear the end of it until he found out who the date was with. She poured herself a cup of coffee and sat on the couch. She flipped through one of the magazines on the coffee table and waited for the post to arrive.

The squeaking of the wheels on the mail cart alerted her, and she rushed out of the break room to her desk. The cart approached her from behind and it stopped at her desk. Bernie the mail man ran to the captain's office and slid the mail under her door before returning to Beckett's desk and handing her her mail.

"Morning, Bernie." She greeted. Bernie was never a very lively man. Aging into his mid-sixties, he was less mobile than he used to be and tended to grunt as a substitute for most words. But today was different.

"Happy Valentine's Day Detective Beckett." He chanted back to her. He dropped her mail onto her desk and continued to trundle down to the other desks in the bull pen.

_That was odd_, Kate thought, _He's never cheerful._

She brushed it off and leant over to pick up her mail. The usual files and reminders sat atop the newspaper. _The Daily Detective_ was a new acquisition of the precinct's. Gates believed that the communication between officers could be better improved and as a result had introduced a newspaper for the precinct. It allowed Officers and Detectives to post notifications about current cases, cold cases, if they needed help, or even something as simple as lost property. The front page was usually dominated by a notice from the captain or an update on a major case, something that involved most of the precinct. As she picked up the newspaper, she noticed that day's front page was different. Instead of a picture dominating the upper half of the page, there was huge block letters. Kate read them and as she did, nearly dropped her coffee on the ground.

_Kate, Will you marry me?_ Was printed in black and white across the upper half of the newspaper.

She stared at it for a while, and once her thoughts had been rearranged and put back together from the scrambling the obscene amounts of joy had caused, she started to smile. She smiled widely, like she'd never smiled before. So much that it nearly hurt. She hurtled from her chair, and out of the bull pen, only vaguely hearing Esposito's _Congrats, Kate._ She hurtled down the stairs and out into the car park. She hardly remembered doing any of it because the only thing she could think, was

_Yes!_


End file.
